St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-02
Openings For Market Gardeners in Douglas
County, Wis.-Agrioultural Lands
Being Rapidly Taken.
Experiments in the Transportation of
Cattle by Lake, and the Adj
vantages Gained.
Cattle Lose Less Than by
Rail Shipments.
Special to the Globe.

Oll the assessors DOCKS IMAM all the i'm
provementS which railway and mining COM
panes, manufacturers shippers and mer-
chants will place on the harb0r front Not
many years ago the plain of Superior was
covered with dense forest and the clayey
soil held so much water on the surface that
travelling through the woods in summer
time was almost impossible. The aborigi-
nal inhabitants lived and made their Jour
neys by the water courses and avoided the
forest depths. The white men who came
first to this region of necessity followed the
red mems routes Of travel and
learned little about the interior The
first wagon road constructed in this country
was the military and stage road from St.
raul. which was so laid as to take all DOS
sible advantage of natural drainage, but
there was no more difficult road i'm all of
Uncle Sans domain. There are MANY in
st. Paul who journeyed by stage to or from
Superior i'll the spring months who will re-
member the road and the deep mud through
which the stage was slowly dragged. |
walked over the once worst part of that
same road few days ago. and found it
hard and dry-a tit place for speeding fast
road horse The woodcutterS. lumbermen
and roadmakers opened the forest years ago
to sun and wind, and forest hres, between
the "divide' and the bay, have fastened
the drying of the land.
FARMING IN DOUGLAS COUNTY.
Five years ago not to exceed twenty white
persons had settled in Douglas county out,
side of Superior Now there are four Or
gained towns in the county. with 800
voters. 1t was early known that the soil
was favorable to agriculture for in 1858
James 5. Ritchie received q special diploma
from the United States Agricultural society
for an exhibition at Richmond, Va, of red
winter wheat, corn, tobacco potatoes and
a variety Of garden vegetables he had raised
on his land inside the limits of Superior
town. The settlers along the railroads are
opening farms and most of them have pro-
duced profitable crops of grain, grass and
vegetables. A few are raising stock for
the butchers and making butter and cheese.
But the district traverSed last week is near
town. The land is owned by spectators
and held at $50 to 500 an acre, hence
there are few farms. Yet in this district
the dead and burned timber can be cleared
at light cost; and drainage. where necessary.
is made easy by various and natural water
courses running down to the near by rivers.
which are forty to eighty feet below the
level of the plain. The few farms opened
in this district prove the fertility of the soil,
and that for grain, grass and root crops the
climate is quite as favorable as in Ontario
or New York. 1t is district where mar
ket gardeners would do we'll, having rail
and water communication with the markets
of Duluth, West Superior and Superior,
four to eight miles away, and these markets
lack sufficient home supply.
FINE MEADOWS.
Most OF the farms [ have visited are
!. owned and cultivated by families residing
in the town, and are beng seeded to grass
as fast as the original sod is subdued. On
these farms l saw large fields of red clover
and timothy, as perfectly sodded and as
rich in appearance as any clover or timothy
meadows L ever saw in New York The
yield of timothy on these farms last season
averaged over two tons per acre. The
white clover in this country is prevailing
over the original grass and sod wherever
white men have opened roads or made
clearings. l should say that the country is
especially well adapted to dairy farming
and the raising OF stock and poultry.
LAKE TRANSPORTATION
An experiment of shipping cattle by lake
will perhaps present interesting results to
some of your readers-in view of the prob
ability of st. Paul becoming the great
cattle market of the country. This was
the shipment or 100 fat cattle from Superior
to England in the early summer of 1885.
by lake to Buffalo and thence by rail to
New York. Sir MOreton Frewen. who
took the cattle to England, in a letter pub
lished in that country about July 81, 1885
gave the costs of carriage per head, as fol-
lows: Powder river via Northern Pacific
railway to feeding station at Superior 12s
IN, DIFF oJD l,,l LII II
via Delaware IL Lackawanna rail-
way to New York IS, New York
to Deptford SOS; total freight charges,
SIS. Food, twenty-five days at 7%d
per day, lbs; labor (ncluding return
journey. IS; insurance, IS. Total charges
and costs, lbs or S2S per head. The
charges, if shipments were made by train
loads, he estimated. would be reduced SIS on
the lakes and los on the sea, bringing the
total charges and expenses, from Powder
river to Deptford, down to $3.50. Other
all-rail shipments from Nebraska feeding
point, about the same time, resulted in an
average loss of $50 pounds in weight on az
rival at New York, while the average loss
from Superior to New York was only So
pounds per qead. On the lakes and on the
sea there was no loss of weight, the cattle
on board ship being nicely stalled regularly
fed and watered and kept clean.
SAVING IN QUANTITY AND QUALITY.
Sir Moreton estimates that dead meats
will be transported by lake from Superior
to Buffalo at cost of $1.25 per ton.
baSing his estimate upon the statements of
transportation experts that there can be no
profit in carriage by rail at a rate under
three quarters of a cent per ton per mile,
while vessel owners on the lake can and do
make money at three quarters of one mill
per ton per mile. While it would be saw
ing to slaughter the cattle in the West and
ship the meat yet the prejudices of meat
dealers and consumers demand that
our fresh beef should be shipped
alive, and for that the lake
transportation is by far the best. The
great loss in weight bySralroad transporta-
ton of live stock is certainly attended with
| injuries to the cattle which make the meat
inferior to what it would be if delivered to
the butchers direct from the feeding sta
tons. Transportation by the lake reduces
the rail transportation to a minimum and
enables the owner to continue the regular
feeding and good care which makes prime
beef to within twenty-fOur hours of placing
| the animals on sale at New York
| Now that there is hopeful prospect of
the live stock trade of the North
west being conferred at ST. Paul.
and that resulting in great in
crease of slaughtering and packing
establishments at or near your city, 1.-THE
e-water route is to become of greater
importance than ever to the business of st.
Paul-not only as regulator of through
rates, but as the best freighting route. |
hope its importance will be so appreciated
that ST. Paul men will endeavor to direct
the next railway to be built to the head of
the lake by the airline route, which will
reduce the rail distance between ST. Paul